The present invention relates to an area isolation type solid-state image pickup device capable of effectively utilizing its semiconductor chip by dividing an element formation surface of the semiconductor chip into different signal processing areas.
A general solid-state image pickup device is such that its image pickup surface constitutes an area satisfying a standard television's aspect ratio. And is an image pickup element, its drive circuit and an image pickup signal processing circuit are each comprised of an independent IC chip.
As a camera, however, some types not necessarily require any image pickup area satisfying the standard television's aspect ratio, such as an industrial monitoring camera used for the purpose of monitoring only a subject of a given configuration for instance. Some industrial inspection cameras are adapted to inspect a bottle for instance. The camera taking a shot of a bottle is such that, in its image pickup element, an area on which an optical image of a subject is formed is part of its whole area and, in this case, the rest of the area is not used effectively.
In recent years, the semiconductor integration techniques have been markedly advanced to enable more and more elements to be formed on the element formation surface of a semiconductor chip. If consideration is paid to the effective use of such a semiconductor chip, more area has not been effectively used.